Rocky Colavito - A Sensation in Cleveland

A Sensation in Cleveland

After breaking in with the Indians briefly in 1955, he started 1956 in the Pacific Coast League, once showing off his throwing arm by hurling a ball over the center-field wall from home plate, with his longest mark at 436 feet (133 m). He returned to the Indians in July, and after batting .276 with 21 home runs. He earned one vote in the AL Rookie of the Year voting. After slipping to a .252 average in 1957, in 1958 he batted .303 with 41 home runs (one behind Mickey Mantle's league lead) and 113 runs batted in, and finished third in the MVP balloting. He also led the AL in slugging with a .620 average, the highest by a right-handed Indians hitter until Albert Belle in 1994.

One year later Colavito became the first Indian to have two 40-HR seasons; with 42, he tied Harmon Killebrew for the AL lead and was one short of Al Rosen's club record. He finished fourth in the MVP vote, and also made the All-Star team for the first time; he was eventually chosen in six years, including both All-Star Games in 1959, 1961 and 1962, when two were played annually. On June 10, 1959 he smashed four homers in consecutive at bats in a single game at the Baltimore Orioles' cavernous Memorial Stadium. He later hit four home runs on the same day while playing for Detroit, but they were distributed between the two games of a double header. The Indians finished five games behind the Chicago White Sox in the 1959 pennant race, the closest he would come to a title until 1967. Colavito would hit 30-plus homers seven times, establishing himself as a major power hitter and as an excellent fielder with a strong arm despite being flat-footed.